The Upper Action-Before and After

Coupler linkages. One cleaned and one not. Original felt.

Coupler linkages before cleaning

Coupler linkages cleaned and reinstalled

The usual items needed servicing on this organ. Mutes needed re-leathering, reeds needed cleaning and tuning. Keys needed to re-bushed and leveled among other non standard items like recovering the reed pan with violet velvet. A lot of the felt was in good condition and didn't need to be replaced but cleaned instead.

The mutes were recovered with new leather and springs replaced where necessary. The hinges were polished. Some were quite tarnished.

At the last stage of re-building I discovered that there were numerous ciphers between several notes on the top right rank of reed cells. These cells contained an 8ft and 4ft set of reeds. When a note was sounded the one either side ciphered. An almost catastrophic fault. Thanks to the other enthusiasts on the Yahoo! Restoration Group I was able to get assistance in repairing this defect. I painted molten candle wax on the inside of the reed cells. This penetrated any cracks by capillary action thus sealing them and solving the problem perfectly.

The mutes were recovered with new leather and springs replaced where necessary. The hinges were polished. Some were quite tarnished.

The detached bank of cells

Note the build up of soot where it should never should have been able to accumulate

All clamped together again

At one stage it became clear that the sub-bass reed cell section was partly detached from the reed pan. Fortunately with a little easing it came away completely with minimal damage to the reed cells so that it could be cleaned and glued back in position. Under the cells walls which divide the reed cells a deposit of soot had accumulated. It was evident that this section had been partly detached for a long time and may not have been attached properly at manufacture since so much soot was present where it should never have had the opportunity to be.

The stop board unit was in very good condition and only needed cleaning and lubrication.